Australia is doomed if a party whose platform is basically "signing the Kyoto Protocol" wins.
Not terrorism.
Not boosting the economy.
Not lowering debt or avoiding recession.
Not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
No, we gotta sign that damn Kyoto Protocol.
Seriously, how frivolous is your party when you think this is the most important issue your country faces? And how luxurious are the people if they think this is the biggest issue in their country.
I wonder who they'll elect when a real problem faces the country.
My condolences to Frank.
It seems like investing in cleaner energy could boost the economy. Especially if they created an exportable technology.
ReplyDeleteLiving next to a solar panel farm vs. a coal burning power plant would probably make people happy.
Wouldn't a lowered dependence on Middle East, terrorism funding, dictators for oil be a form of liberty and fight terrorism?
Oil dependence is short sighted thinking.
Thanks Cap'n. Effective propaganda works wonders, doesn't it? You never know, it might be a token gesture just to win votes.
ReplyDeleteHopefully he's the economic conservative that he says he is and he's not a pushover with the unions - otherwise he's out in 3 years.
If he screws the economy, I'll be the first ar$ehole to say "well, I didn't vote for him!"
The worst thing is now we have Labor governments in all states/territories and now at the federal level.
Oh, and one other thing - despite what the media would like the rest of the world to think (like in that article you linked to), Iraq was never an issue - it was barely mentioned during the entire election campaign. Labor certainly didn't run any advertising against our involvement in the war.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest issues were IR reforms and climate change - mostly because it's the perfect scapegoat to our current drought.
The unions did very well with their propaganda against workplace reforms.
I wonder if this is going to make their economy head into the crapper. None of the European nations that signed Kyoto are succeeding in meeting the goals, but they sure are firing holes in their economies.
ReplyDeleteAnd any party with a former rock star in it I would avoid like the plague.
Cap'n,
ReplyDeleteYou forgot about the other plank of Rudd's labor party - he was going to lower interest rates.
Hellooooo inflation, hello weak currency, hello Jimmy Carter Redux
"It seems like investing in cleaner energy could boost the economy."
ReplyDeleteNo. Energy expenditures are costs. The cheaper they are, the better.
"Especially if they created an exportable technology."
Only if it's actually worth paying for. When was the last time a government developed something worth paying for?
"Living next to a solar panel farm vs. a coal burning power plant would probably make people happy."
Not if you have brownouts every day because you can't get enough power. Maybe the environmentalists would like it, I don't know.
"Oil dependence is short sighted thinking."
No, it's not. We're using the best resource available until it starts running low, at which point we'll switch to something else.
Ryan, don't forget to take the total cost of cheap energy into consideration, such as making terrorist supporting dictators rich, environmental impacts, asthma in children, etc.
ReplyDeleteSatellites, the Internet, and government funded medical research in medical schools come to mind as government supported programs. Are they valuable?
If oil is the best resource available, why are right wing folks so eager to use it up as fast as possible by opposing CAFE standards?
Ya know, I'm not going to worry too much about Rudd. Howard over the years has been as effective as Thatcher was. The entire country has been dragged to the right, opposition parties and all. Rudd won't go any further left than Tony Blair did. Thatcher and Howard were transformational. Rudd won't be able to go left too far, because of how far right he had to go to be elected. Thatcherism became the new normal, and I think Howard has had as transformative an effect down under. Sure, Rudd will tinker some with labour laws, but you watch. When he's done it'll still be about as easy as it is now to fire a dork. I'm not really too worried. Even in losing, Howard has won.
ReplyDeleteAstute observation. One would hope. I just can't get how Aussies can ditch their prime minister and accomodating parliament that have led them through a decade plus years of economic bliss. It really does get to my belief that capitalism spoils its participants and then you get generations like the Baby Boomers and the Gen X'ers that expect everything on a silver platter, problems solved in 2 minutes and wars won in under 5 years. And their worst fear is global warming. We shall see.
ReplyDelete